James West

This story is full of parallel characters and families. The Starks' skinchanging and warging talents are recessive traits. They had to have been practicing incest in the past order to bring out the talents in the children. Gilly's son at the wall could become a very powerful skinchanger.

Bowen Marsh is one of the most maligned characters in "A Song of ice and Fire." The slander always come from a vocal segment of the fandom. He is a person who knowingly accepted future suffering or death to stop Jon Snow from causing further harm to the Night's Watch and Westeros. We all seem to agree that bad things are coming his way. He did nothing wrong and can end up a martyr. He will not have enough men to stop the Wildlings from leaving the castle and riding to war against Roose Bolton. The last book scene with Bowen Marsh had the loyal steward and the other brave brothers of the Night's Watch in tears as they ended the reign of who is perhaps the worst lord commander in the history of the Night's Watch. The assassination was a reaction to Jon's speech at the Shield Hall. The arrival of the Pink Letter exposed Jon's surreptitious activities against Lord Roose Bolton and Westeros. Jon's revelation and admission were damning evidence against him. He further told the gathered crowd of his intentions to lead an army of Wildlings to attack Lord Roose. Bowen Marsh did what any loyal man of the watch would have done. The assassination was not a pre-planned attack. It was an impromptu decision made at the very last minute in order to stop a madman from leading a hastily formed army of barbarians on a raid against a noble house of Westeros. It was not a conspiracy from the Lannisters. Bowen was not trying to usurp Jon. Bowen had been loyal to Jon up to the time of the latter's Shield Hall talk. We must hope for a speedy election of a new lord commander at the wall. Aliser is a good choice if he is still alive.

The Sansa we know is a selfish girl who has delusions of her own grandeur. Sweetrobin is a dead bird if Sansa ever got the notion to kill him to benefit herself.

The Targaryens are the royal family of Westeros. Viserys was the King of Westeros. Only scums as filthy as Jaime Lannister would accept a bargain like that. Anyway the Targaryens surely had a Guardian Angel following them around. Varys was the Angel in King's Landing looking out for them. I am sure he was not alone.

The North is financially poor and their primitive cultural stage will not have the commerce to support another port. The port will not have the traffic to thrive.

The danger to Bowen will come from a revived and wighted Jon Snow. Jon even when he was alive was not the poster boy for good temper and sound judgement. Jon the Wight will be on Stoneheart mode. He will two agendas. Find Arya and kill everybody in Castle Black. Neither of which serves any moral principles. The Brotherhood will understand why the men killed Jon. They have witnesses to prove Jon was guilty of treason. Any person who heard Jon in the Shield Hall can testify to the madness of the Arya rescue operation. Wunwun's disposition presents a lot of problems for the Crows if the giant calms on his own. He killed an anointed knight in a fit of rage. He is a dead giant unless he can prove his innocence. He will need somebody to speak for him because his language skills is not up to that task. There is sadly nobody who can command respect who will step up for WW. Bowen is a fair man though and might at least agree to ask a Wildling to interpret for WW to gather the facts.

Dragons cook their food. Not rare, not medium, but well-done. Poisons will not survive cooking. Marwyn meant the Targaryen humans. The ones on the throne and the babies. That makes the Citadels guilty of a long line of treason dating back 300 years. I would raid the Citadel and check their recorded history. Put to death all the ones who are still alive from the reign of King Aerys II and are guilty of plotting against the Targaryens.

Arya repeated Sandor's sin when she murdered Dareon. Micah and Dareon were innocents who were victims of the moral rot in the upper class of Westeros. Sandor and Arya made the injustice even worse. Sandor at least feel guilt. Arya feels nothing.

The Unsullied are the elite fighting corps of Daenerys Targaryen's armed forces. Best of the best.

Arya joined a religion which thinks offering deaths to the gods is good. Arya would send the city full of people as an offering to her new gods.

I consider them the bad guys of the story. Arya is already a villain and Jon is a traitor at the wall. Yes they are victims but they also victimized others.

One thing you overlooked. Winter, incompetent leadership, rebellions, and family battles are quickly weakening Westeros. Daenerys is getting stronger. Her dragons are growing. Her armies are getting new recruits day by day. She even has a church supporting her. She can and she will sail for Westeros.

Nothing personal Aldarion. I don't put much value in your argument. I have seen a lot of your postings on this topic and disagree with you. The Unsullied are the best infanty and they will perform well for Daenerys if or when she takes them to Westeros. They are trained to an extreme level and cannot be matched by any army in Westeros. Sure there are few of them but their number should equal the number of passable quality knights in Westeros. The Unsullied alone are not enough to take the whole territory of Westeros but they will be invincible with the main force consisting mainly of Dothraki, Together they will make the armored meat heads in Westeros run from the battlefield.

Funding wars and successions is but a small part of what they do. The bank lends to businesses large and small. Essos has more advanced commerce and can support the growth of the bank. They made bad loans to Westeros. The loans to Stannis and Jon are not secure. Tycho will be in deep sh!t very soon with his employer. The bank took a chance with Stannis. Pretend for a short minute that Stannis became king. The bank would impose austerity measures on Westeros (like we did to Greece). Stannis would tax the hell out of the people and try to force the lords to pay more. His time on the throne will make Truss' time as PM an eternity. The loan to the watch is not secure but the bank got lucky when Marsh killed Jon. Their chances of getting their money back just doubled. Marsh is a good administrator while Jon Snow sucked. It is still a bad loan even if the chances of getting it back doubled. Winter is upon them. Revenue is not coming.

That is what they trained in. Do you judge the knights because they train with wooden swords? No. Do you judge the quality of a Braavosi swordmaster because they train with wooden swords? The Unsullied are provided with those weapons upon their purchase. The buyer is under no restrictions to limit them to those. She can equip them with armor and if they can afford it, Valyrian Steel weapons. Their tactics are actually very advanced. The only development to make those tactics dated is gunpowder. Absent gunpowder, those tactics are effective. They were good enough to force Valyria to fight hard before beating Ghis.

Tywin and Jaime are bad men. Cersei and Tyrion are not as bad. Yet. Tyrion is liked by most people. Tywin and Cersei are not so liked. Jaime is a polarizing figure. I don't like Jaime but some others do. I have noted over the years that the people who adore Jaime are the same ones who dislike Daenerys and the Targaryens. It is also observable that Pro-Daenerys people like myself hate Jaime. I don't think what he did to Bran even matters. The only thing that matters to us when it comes to Jaime is whether we like Daenerys or not. I have a liking for the Targaryens because I like Daenerys. Cersei killed another girl in her teen years. She killed Melara. But be fair. Arya started killing at a younger age. Arya shows little if any guilt and no remorse. How can you really hate on Cersei and like Arya at the same time. Bronn is a much worse person than the Lannisters except Jaime. Jaime is more evil than Sandor. Sexism? Yes it is a factor for many. Which family you like is more of a factor.

I made a comment on the subject of Essos that the scale went up when George Martin took his readers to the vast Dothraki Sea, Vaes Tolorro, and Slaver's Bay. It is not just the scale of the places that increased but the population and size of the armies as well. Volantis and Meeren are enormous compared to King's Landing. The military capability and the destructive forces increased proportionally to the size of the population and the more advanced war science in Essos. That is before we even talk about Drogon and his brothers. Here we are only entering the Unsullied and the Dothraki into the formula. They are scary enough on their own. The Targaryen army will be further bolstered by the freedmen who are undergoing military training. Dany should be able to win a hard fought campaign with her Dothraki and Unsullied. If she chooses to do it that way. I am not so sure she will. We know she cares for her soldiers. We know she has a good feel for which of her assets to risk and which to save for later. She will want to lessen the casualties on her side. For that, she will employ mercenaries. Mercenaries will be at the front. Promises of land and titles will be made. She will have allies in Westeros and they too will be given promises. The so called Second Houses from each kingdom will be waiting in line for their turn to upset the Great Houses and they will support her claim. An example is Lady Dustin in the north, Walder in the riverlands, and the Hightowers in the Reach.

The parents were only partly to blame. They left the safety and isolation of the north for the big city to play at politics and some social climbing. But Sansa, Robb, and Arya later made bad decisions. Sansa basically lied to cover for her boyfriend, Joffrey. Arya made the choice to become an obsessive murderer. Arya has so far gotten away with it but her murdering will catch up with her. Jon broke the rules at the watch and got himself assassinated by his own men. It is not fair to place all the blame on the parents.

The story began in the closed and rather small world of the north. It gradually expanded and new people and places were introduced. You have to look at the novels as one story. It began in a backwards village with unsophisticated people who have not gone much further than their small confines would allow. Ned and Cat had travelled but their children were ignorant and never been to a city. Never been to a city! Imagine that. The first scenes take place in the north and then story expanded to the Free Cities and Essos. The vastness of the great Dothraki Sea and the size of the cities we see in the east introduced us to a whole new level of scale. The settings changed from muddy villages in the west to the developed cities of the east. Don't worry if that is not enough for you. George Martin plans to bring back the Dothraki in a big way. We will learn of their origins in the next book.

I don't believe it. The old woman was trying to play games just like the old toad in Dorne. It worked in Dorne because Rhaenys was weak. Daenerys is a child but she is very smart. Daenerys tried to play nice and give the Meerenese a chance to do the right thing and accept a new way without the evils of slavery. Most of the Meerenese are starting to adapt and accept but the Harpy are terrorists who want the old, evil ways to return. The next step is to eliminate the entirety of the Harpy organization.

The north will become lifeless but Jon and his walking dead army will be stopped at the trident.

The Five Forts in the east are proof that they also faced a threat long ago. There is an equivalent threat but it is not the Others. There are equivalents but do not come at the same time. Humans and life migrate from one side to the other as the need arises.

If bastards, and specifically the legitimization of bastards can cause problems, just think about the disaster if polygamy is allowed in a system of inherited rule. Aegon IV made his bastards legit and look at the problems it caused ever since. Polygamy would have torn the kingdom apart. Daenerys will have three husbands. It will work in her case because she will be the ruler of many kingdoms. Each children from the husbands will have their own kingdom. She will have rule over the Ghiscari, Dothraki, and Westerosi. Three husbands, and potentially three children. Such was not the case with her ancestors who only had Westeros.

As a man, he was okay. He might have been acceptable as a prince but not king. Rhaegar was far from pragmatic. Fighting Robert in a duel was chivalrous but stupid. A chance? Absolutely. The maesters were probably poisoning him and that was what drove him to mental instability. Remove the maesters from the equation and he might have done alright. Robert had a chance but he would have needed more than Jon Arryn to keep him on the right track. Robert was an able military man but he lacked political skills. Azor Ahai is Daenerys Targaryen. The Promised Prince, because of the gender fluidity of Valyrian language and most importantly dragons, is also her.

What will be the reactions to Young Griff ? Suspicion, obviously. His main support will come from the Martells. Many in Dorne will not fall for his claims. Most of Westeros will not accept his claim.